Open Mike (TV series)

Open Mike was an Australian interview-based talk show hosted by sports journalist and writer Mike Sheahan. Each week during the Australian Football League (AFL) season, Sheahan interviewed a figure in the history of Australian football, discussing their involvement in the game, whether on-field or off-field, as well as their lives and contributions away from the game.

Open Mike
Presented byMike Sheahan
Country of originAustralia
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons10
No. of episodes234
Production
Running time30 minutes
Release
Original networkFox Sports (2009-2011)
Fox Footy (2012-2020)
Original release21 March 2009 (2009-03-21) –
20 October 2020 (2020-10-20)

History

The series premiered on Fox Sports Australia in 2009, before moving to Fox Sports' dedicated AFL channel Fox Footy in 2012. The show regularly aired on Monday nights at 9.30pm until moving to Tuesday nights at 8.30pm in 2016.[1]

Guests have included former champion players Kevin Bartlett, Leigh Matthews and Bob Skilton; coaching greats Kevin Sheedy, David Parkin and Malcolm Blight, and media personalities Tony Charlton, Eddie McGuire and Sam Newman. Former chief executive officer of the AFL Andrew Demetriou, former Sydney premiership coach Paul Roos, and Kevin Sheedy have also appeared twice in two separate episodes.

In October 2020, it was announced by Fox Footy that Sheahan would be retiring after an 11 year stint at the station, thus concluding Open Mike. In a fitting farewell, the 234th and final episode turned the tables on the long-time presenter, with the longtime presenters of fellow Fox Footy program AFL 360, journalists Gerard Whateley and Mark Robinson taking the hosting role and interviewing Sheahan. The episode aired on 20 October 2020.[2]

List of episodes

Season One (2009–11)

Season Two (2012)

Season Three (2013)

Season Four (2014)

Season Five (2015)

Season Six (2016)

Season Seven (2017)

Season Eight (2018)
Notes
  • ^ — As part of Player Takeover week on Fox Footy, the episode was split into two parts consisting of Brown interviewing Sheahan in the first half of the episode and Sheahan interviewing Brown in the second half of the episode.

Season Nine (2019)

Season Ten (2020)

Awards and nominations
Year Award Category Result
2014 ASTRA Awards Most Outstanding Sports Entertainment Program Won[3]
2014 Australian Football Media Awards Most Outstanding Television Program Won[4]

Book

Published by The Slattery Media Group in 2013, Open Mike: Conversations with Greats of the AFL Game is a selection of transcripts of Open Mike interviews from the first two seasons.

See also

References
  1. Knox, David (23 February 2016). "FOX Sports kicks off 2016 season". TV Tonight. Retrieved 24 February 2016.
  2. "Mike drop - Footy's most decorated journalist calls time on flagship program". 15 October 2020.
  3. 2014 Finalists and Winners
  4. Australian Football Media Association awards: winners
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